Please take a look at the description below, before you start reading the story.





Once upon a time when the forces of light were ruling over the lands and all kingdoms were united as the great kingdom of Lantador, all creatures lived in harmony and nobody had to fear anything. It seemed that all evil thoughts had been extinguished forever, but they were wrong. When there is light there always must be darkness, however nobody remembered this simple rule.This was their doom.

On a fateful day dark clouds covered the capital of Lantador in darkness. At this time the four rulers, Sarian, the king of the elves, Boldi, the king of the dwarves, Richard, the king of the humans and Greyleave, an old Ent and the envoy of the creatures of the nature, were sitting in the great hall of the palace. The wonderful harmony had disappeared and they had a severe argument.

A group of humans had burnt down parts of the forest to kill a pack of wolves without asking the nature for permission. Greyleave demanded an apology and a refund from Richard, but Richard refused and in return demanded an apology from Greyleave, inasmuch as the wolves had attacked the sheep of the farmers first. While Boldi was on Richards side, Sarian was on Greyleaves.

“It ... is clear ... who the ... one to blame. You little ... humans hurt us!”, Ents are always speaking very slowly and Greyleave was not an exception.

“Don’ call anyone little, you old and gnarled tree on two legs!”, Boldi shouted.

Sarian was the calmest of them and wanted to deescalate the situation: “Please stay calm. We should not insult anyone. Maybe we can come to a solution, if we talk together as we did in the last years.”

However Richard was not so calm as Sarian and answered: “We do not have so much time as you two have. We cannot live so long. The old man here, or I should say the old tree here, should apologise and that’s it.”

Sarian shook his head in desperation, but he tried it once more: “I admit that it seems that everyone has made mistakes, but we cannot allow this to overshadow our future actions as rulers. We have a huge responsibility and should never forget this.”

“I do not care about your responsibility. I am only responsible for my people, the dwarves. If you believe that you have to fight each other, we will close our gates and wait for the end of the storm. I will leave now. Good bye, wimps!”, Boldi said and Richard added: “I will leave too, but never dare to come to our villages again or we will burn down much more than only a little piece of forest.”

“We will ... see! While you ... puny people ... only life for ... um, a few years ... the nature never ... dies!”, Greyleave said.

Sarian was visibly sad and begged them: “Please stay here. We have to find a solution.” Nobody reacted and together Boldi and Richard left the room and Geyleave only seemed to laugh about the two kings.

Meanwhile the villagers of Lantador did not suspect anything. Sarenas an ordinary elf was working in his sculpture workshop, which was located on the first floor of his little house near the main square of the capital. He just finished his last masterpiece and was now inspecting it. Beside him was his wonderful wife, Galadria. Her dark hair was waving down her shoulders and her wonderful smile seemed to let even the stone in front of her melt.

“It is wonderful, honey!”,she said, but he answered “Are you sure? I believe that I could have been better.”  

Galadria smiled and kissed him on his cheek. Then she said: “You are too harsh to yourself. It will be perfect for our little sunshine!”

Again he held her in his arms and said “I just want to make everything perfect for our baby.”, while touching her round belly.

Then they kissed each other for a few very long minutes. Sarenas removed his lips slightly and said: “I am going to bring it to Mister Jonathan. He should have finished the cloth and the suiting pillows in the right time.”

“I am sure that everything will be fine. Just don’t let me alone here too long.”

Sarenas nodded and took the heavy cradle, when he saw Galadrias bare feet on the stony floor: “It is cold. Should I buy you a pair of slippers, baby?”

Galadria laughed and said: “Why do you ask? You never saw any footwear on my feet, since we know each other.”

If it is her wish, he will let her.  He gave her a last kiss and then closed the door and headed toward the tailor’s shop of Mister Jonathan.


Out on the streets he looked up into the sky and wondered why the weather was this bad. Then he put on his hood, because the rain became stronger and the wind was nearly a violent storm. Suddenly he smelled smoke. He looked around the next corner and saw that the embassy building of the elves was burning. Instantly he put the cradle to the ground and ran to the building to save any victim. He was an elf and every elf followed a codex. An elf was always obliged to help anybody who is in need. A group of humans was standing in front of the building, but nobody seemed to do anything to help.

He grabbed the shoulder of one and asked: “What are you doing? We have to rescue everyone, who is in the building!”

But the human man laughed and said: “Ah, another victim. Catch him guys!”

Sarenas was too surprised to react quickly enough. Two human men grabbed his arms and held him tight. He struggled to escape, but the two were really strong.

He shouted at the guy from before, who seemed to be the leader of them: “You monsters! You set the fire! Why did you do that?”

The man didn’t stop laughing and said: “Today is the day, when we are going to pay you back for everything. Damn pointy ear!”

Sarenas didn’t understand anything and wondered: “We have always lived in harmony. All races together! We elves never did anything evil to the humans!”

The man became angry and now shouted at Sarenas: “Your complete existence is an insult for our race! Your long lives, your kitschy sense for art and so on!”

He came nearer and punched Sarenas into his stomach. He writhed in pain, but said:  “Please stop this, or I have to punish you for your sins.”

The men laughed. The leader took his chin and looked into Sarenas eyes. His breath smelled as if he had drunken litres of alcohol and smoked many cigarettes.

Then he said: “What do you plan to do? Fight against all of us?” and punched Sarenas on his stomach again.

When the pain became weaker Sarenas answered: “If this is, what you wish, I will give it to you.”

He began to smile. Some of the men began to be slightly afraid and one said: “Boss, why is he smiling? Something must be wrong here.” “He must be crazy. There is no chance that he is gonna hurt us!”

Sarenas closed his eyes and concentrated on the tension in the air. Suddenly in only one second a small lightning went from his arms into the bodies of the guys, who held him and then jumped to all bodies. Everyone, who was cached by the lightning, fell to the ground. They were alive, but unable to move for a while. In this moment the city guards arrived. The members of the group were only elves and satyrs.

While they managed to rescue the people, who had been caught by the fire their commander asked Sarenas: “What happened here? This group of humans set the fire. When I begged them to help the people inside they attacked me and told me that they want to pay back everything, which the elves had done to them.”

The Commander looked sad and told Sarenas: “This is not the first incident. Something destroyed the harmony between our races and many humans hate the elves now. Oh, how did you manage to knock all of them out?”

“Oh, it was only a small lightning to paralyze them.”

“Ah, ok. Good job! We will take them to the prison. Um, are you injured? Should we take you to the next hospital?”

“No, thank you. I am alright. Good bye, officer.”

They shook hands and Sarenas walked back to take the cradle. When he walked by the guards, the officer shouted: “You should think about moving to Tirilor, the town of our king. You child will be save there. Good luck my friend!"

Not far away in the palace of the kings Richard entered his room. Someone had already waited for him.

“You were strong and powerful, my king. You did the right thing.”, the person said and Richard answered: “You don’t have to tell me that. I am immune to crawlers! What are you doing here in the royal chambers, Mulgard? Speak quickly or I will punish you instantly!”  

Mulgard was not impressed and continued speaking: “I heard that rumours have broken out in the town. The humans are attacking the elves and burning down the houses. Sarian will insist on punishing them, but as a king you should stand behind them.”

“Of course I will. Nobody punishes my people except me! Disappear now!” Mulgard bowed before Richard and left the room backwards. Richard didn’t see the evil smile on Mulgards face.


Meanwhile deep down under the streets of the city an ancient existence awakened. Darkness arises and nobody is able to stop it. If these fools cannot take care of themselves I have to intervene.

“Tachi and Tuchi, come to me!” The time has come to change the future. Two creatures came through a dark gate and bowed before the ancient master. Their body was shaped like the one of humans, but they looked, if they had been formed out of clay recently and nobody had finished them now. They had no ears, noses, mouths and eyes, while their skin had the natural brown colour of clay and were fully naked.

“I created you two for only one purpose. Now the time has come to use your special abilities. Tachi. You have to find the elf Galadria and take care of her and her unborn child. Do everything possible to save this child. She is the first part of the puzzle of hope and so she is going to be the one, who is going to reunite the kingdoms and races together with her husband. Guide and save her until she reaches the right age to live on her own. Then return once more to me.” They are like children to me. I trust that they will finish their job. If they fail, it is my own fault, because I created them.

“Tuchi. You attend the villages. Find the farmer John Severin. Guide him and take care of him. His great-grandchild will be the second part of the puzzle of hope. If both of you do your jobs well, the two parts will find together and bring hope into this continent. Tachi should take over the body of a rich elf, while Tuchi should take over the body of an ordinary human farmer. Farewell my children!”

And so the first shining stone for the tower is set. Hopefully it will be strong enough to survive this storm. Tachi and Tuchi stood up and vanished again in the shadows and the ancient master puts himself again to a deep sleep until they return.
Sarenas opened the door to the tailors shop and carried the cradle with him.

“Good evening everyone!”

There were only humans and dwarves in the shop and nobody greeted Sarenas. They only looked at him serious.

Sarenas took the cradle and put it on the desk and said: “Hello, Mr. Jonathan. I made this cradle for my unborn child. How much would it cost to make pillows and add some cloth?”

Jonathan just said: “We don’t serve elves anymore. Go to your pack and find an elfin tailor.”

Sarenas could not believe what he heard, but then he said “Pf, good bye grumpy.” and left the shop.

This was the last thing, which he needed to encourage him to a new plan. He decided to take his wife and move to Tirilor. This town was not safe anymore.

Angrily he walked through the streets with the cradle under his arm, when suddenly someone touched his shoulder and said: “Um, excuse me. Do you know someone, who is pregnant and whose name is Galadria?”

Exactly at this moment a strange creature knocked onto the door of the royal chambers, which belonged to Sarian, the ruler of the elves. “Who is there?”, asked a voice behind the door.

“It is me, Muldrag, your counsellor.”

“You are allowed to enter Muldrag, please come in and tell me what your desire is.”

Muldrag didn’t wait any second and entered the room. Sarian was walking in circles thinking about something, which caused deep wrinkles on his forehead.

“My king. I have bad news. King Richard wants that the humans, who had been caught today, are brought to him. He wants to judge over them by his own alone.” Sarian sat down on a chair and spoke: “This is impossible. The kings and judges of all four parties have to judge. No king is allowed to judge alone to prevent unfair preferences. The humans are breaking all laws and if you ask them for their motivations, they only state that we elves deserve it. I don’t understand them anymore and Richard is not any help. What should I do know?”

“My king. I don’t dare to order you anything, but I would talk to the other rulers. Maybe you can find a solution together.”

“This is not possible anymore. Boldi left this town today and Grayleave is as stubborn as a rock. What happened to this world?”

“I do not know. I only know one possible action for now. You could to the same as Boldi and leave this town. Move to Tirilor and tell your people to follow you. The elves are not secure in this town anymore. Oh and I heard that Richard prepares his troops for a war. It is only a rumour, but maybe you should do the same.”  

Sarian stood up and pat Muldrag on his shoulder: “You are right. I will write a letter to all the elves in this town instantly. Someday I will pay you back for your wise advices my dear friend.”

Muldrag nodded and answered: “You do not owe me anything my lord. The safety of our race is the only thing I want.”

They shook hands and Muldrag left the room. When he had closed the door he could not hold back and laughed insanely. On his way down he met Lucidar, the son of Sarian and prince of the elves, who looked at Muldrag serious. When both were side to side Lucidar grabbed Muldrags shoulder and held him.

Then he said: “It seems that you poisoned my week fathers mind again with your double tongue. Watch out. When I am the king I will lock you into the deepest chambers of the prison.”

The other guy took Lucidars hand put it away, while saying: “Happily, you are not the king. You should watch out, because your father trusts me more than you, little boy.”

Muldrag continued walking down and felt the burning look of Lucidar on his back. He should put him aside as soon as possible.

“Of course. She is my wife, but who are you?”, Sarenas asked the female elf with the dark green cloak.

He recognised her as women, because of her voice, but could not see her face. Now she removed her hood and showed it.

A happily smiling face appeared: “Just call me Tachi. My master sent me to save your wife and your child. Please lead me to her. We don’t have much time.”

“Oh, um, who tells me that I can trust you and your master? And who is your master that he is interested in the sake of my little unborn child?”

Tachi seemed disappointed and stomped with her foot: “Oh, come on. How can anyone not trust this cute face?” Tachi smiled and continued: “My master is the most powerful being in these lands. He can do so much wonderful things and can also see in the future. I am sure that your baby is going to play a very important role in the future. Please trust me. I will take care after your wife and your child.”

Sarenas already knew that his beloved ones were in danger and accepted every help.

“Ok. Come on and follow me. I will keep an eye on you.”

Sarenas started walking to his house and Tachi followed him.

In their way he asked her: “Can you tell me more about your master?”

Tachi answered: “I don’t really know very much about him either, but he is the one, who created me.”

“So you don’t know really know your father?”

“He is not my father in the way you might think. As I said, he created me, but he didn’t need a mother.”

“Wait what? What do you mean?”

“He formed out of clay and wonderful magic. I can show you a trick to prove it. Look!”

Sarenas stopped for a short moment, turned around and saw with a shock that Tachi had separated her head from her shoulders. He could not believe his eyes. Who would not be stunned, when a beautiful woman takes off her head in front of you?

“I can tell you more later, but for now we have to go.”

Sarenas continued walking, but he could not stop wondering. After walking for a few minutes the house came into sight, but it seemed too late. High flames came out of the roof. Sarenas was shocked.

“No! This cannot be!”, was the only thing he could say, but then he saw Tachi running towards the house.

She was right, there was hope left and so he also started running. The strange creature, which looked like an elf, but was not an elf and called herself Tachi, had put her head already on her shoulders, however now she pulled on her left arm and separated it from her body. With her right arm she used it as a weapon against the humans with the torches. They were scared to death and Tachi could defeat the first of them quickly.

But then the others started reacting, but they had no chance. One guy brandished his sword and cut off Tachis head.
It fell to the ground and the men thought it was over, although the body didn’t stop fighting and the head without the body shouted: “You will pay for this. Nobody throws my head onto these dirty streets!”

Meanwhile Sarenas rushed into the house to look for his wife, when suddenly a lifeless body broke through the floor upon him. Luckily, it was not Galadria. Through the whole he could see her fighting against the rioters with her wind magic. On to one hand he was happy that she was alive, on the other hand he saw a cut on her cheeks, which finally unleashed his fury!

He used the anger to focus on his magical powers and with a high-jump he jumped through the hole and landed in front of his wife.

“Hi, darling. It seems the party has started without me. If you don’t mind, I will join now.”

The rioters were surprised and only stopped attacking for a few seconds.

Sarenas looked at them and said: “You had your fun. Now it is time to pay for it.”

Lightnings rushed in his eyes and when he clapped a chain lightning hit every one of them, but this time it was strong enough to kill them. He took his wife and jumped through the window.

“Tachi, it is time to leave”, he shouted.

While he was running, Galadria asked him: “Um, Sarenas, who is this Tachi and do my eyes deceive me, or did she use her arm as weapon?”

Sarenas did not start running and told her: “She is here to take care of you and our baby and yes, she did. We can talk later, now we move to Tirilor. We are not secure here anymore.”

And so a man, who was carrying his wife and a strange creature left the town in the deepest of the night, hoping for a better future, but this wish was futile.


Meanwhile Mulgard visited again the king of the humans.

“What do you want Mulgard? It is very late and I do not like it, if somebody annoys me at this time of the day.”

Mulgard pretended to be exhausted with deep breaths and said: “I ran to you, my king, to tell you that Sarian prepares his legions. I believe that he will take revenge for the actions of the humans. At the moment he assembles all elves at the main square.”

“Thank you Mulgard. Now go and call together all troops. We are going to visit Sarian.”



The king of the elves was standing in the middle of the square on a rostrum. Beside him was his son.

“The humans attack us and burn down our houses. I don’t want a war. Because of this I will move to Tirilor and ask you all to come with me. We, the elves, are not welcome here anymore. The carawane will set off in the next morning. Everyone, who wants to come with us, should be there in time. Even if Richard wants a war...”

“Ah, I see that you have party here tonight? Why did not anyone invite me? Is it, because I am a human?”, someone well known shouted.

It was Richard. “Richard! Your people attack us. You do nothing to stop this, so we are leaving.”

“To come back with your united troops, I think.”

“Excuse me, but you are wrong. I never wanted a war.”

“Pf, liar! Guards take the elven king!”

Richard's troops approached, but the elves didn’t let them pass.

“Oh, how nice. The people are shielding their king. It doesn’t matter. Attack and kill everyone, who stand in our way!”

And so the bloody harvest began and the night is known since this day as the night of the red moon. The elves fought brave, but Richards troops were much more than the ones of the elves and so the blood of the fallen people tainted the streets red. The king himself fled with a small group of other elves, but his son stayed and fought alongside with his people.

Mulgard suddenly appeared behind Richard and told him: “Look my king. The prince of the elves is there. Maybe we should capture him.”

“This is a good idea, Mulgard. Take a few guards and bring him to the prison.”  So three armoured men and the guy in the black cloak rushed to the prince from behind and knocked him out.

And this was how darkness came over the land and the big war began.